ADAM: God’s Plan for the Redemption of Man

This is the last part of the our first subject in our Patriarch studies - which is Adam. We have studied the fact that God had a perfect plan for Adam’s life. God created him perfect, sinless, in a perfect world.

We learned in our second study that God had a perfect plan for the family. God made the woman, Eve, his helpmeet. Marriage was made to be honorable and good. It was for completion, companionship and children.

The marriage was also to be a picture of openness. As the Bible said Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

The man and the wife were naked physically, but they were also naked emotionally, mentally. They did not hide their feelings, they did not hide things from one another and they were open and pure before God.

Then in our last study, man’s plan for man, we saw the fall of man, the entrance of sin, and the work of Satan through the Serpent. The woman was fooled and deceived, but the Man, Adam sinned willfully. His sin was against God’s word directly. He decided he knew better than God.

So man fell into condemnation, the condemnation of death, and the condemnation of hell. The curses came upon the man, the woman, and even the earth. It seemed God’s perfect creation hadhad run amuck. But God’s plan was still in action.

God has a will for your life, but we fail God so often. Even after we fail through sin and disobedience, God is stilling wanting and willing to get you back on track and He still has a perfect will for your life, if you will trust him.

We see this in Adam’s life as well. What good could have come from the Fall of Man? We see some of that tonight.

I. Man’s Failure Reveals a Loving God

People who have refused to receive Christ’s gift of salvation have often argued, “What kind of God would create man just to send him to hell.”

Realize that God did not create hell for man; he created hell for Satan and his angels. When God created man, we created him so that he could show his love toward man and that man would in turn, glorify God. It was very simple.

But it means nothing for God to create robots that would worship him, no, there is not real love and devotion there, but he created man so that man could choose to worship God.

It is very fair, simply to be saved by a loving God, you need to trust him as your Lord and Savior.

But man rebelled against God. Even though God loved man before the fall and they had fellowship in the Garden, God’s love is manifested even more now, because man does not deserve love, man has sinned against God and rebelled against God. Yet God loved him. This is a much more powerful love.

Romans 5:8 KJV

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Realize that for you and I to love someone that loves us and treats us very well – is not hard. But to love someone who doesn’t love or deserve your love takes a greater love.

Romans 5:20 KJV

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

God, in his love, loves us more perfectly in our sin.

There are two common problems I see in marriages, and many times I see an incredible picture of love.

A woman’s husband has cheated on her, or he has belittled her or hurt her physically or emotionally to a point that he treats her with hatred, or he ignores her. And as I talk to that wife, she still loves her husband, though he is not treating her at least in his words and actions with disdain; yet she is still faithful to him patient with him, caring for him and loving that pathetic husband. There might be another woman who is lavished with gifts and care, and is loved on by her husband, and she loves her husband. Which woman is loving more. I believe it is the scorned woman.

I have met many a man whose wife bosses him around, who is belittled by his wife, who cannot do anything unless his wife approves it, and then, only if she remains in a good mood until that time comes. I have seen where men were beaten down because there wives temper or manipulation and rude comments and threats. And yet, that man still says, I love my wife. It takes more love to love a woman like that than it does to the perfect wife.

God’s love is so amazing, because it is shown more when he loves the sinner.

1 Timothy 1:15 KJV

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

II. Man’s Failure Reveals a Second Adam

There was not only one Adam in the Bible but there were actually two. They were both the beginning of something amazing.

A. The First Adam’s heritage

1. Man was made alive

1 Corinthians 15:45a And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul;

2. Man was earthy

1 Corinthians 15:47a The first man is of the earth, earthy:

He was not of heaven, he had a mortal body.

3. Man brought in sin

Romans 5:12a Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world…

4. Man brought in death

Romans 5:12b …and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

5. Man brought in Curses

o Curses upon man

o Curses upon the woman

o Curses upon the earth

6. Man brought in Condemnation

Romans 5:18a Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation;

B. The Second Adam’s legacy

1. A quickening spirit

1 Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

2. A heavenly origin

1 Corinthians 15:47a The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

3. Brought the forgiveness of sins

Acts 13:38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

4. Victory over death

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

5. Breaking of the curses

Isaiah 11:6-9 teaches us that one day creation will be at one with man - we won’t have to fight to have dominion over it then.

Romans 8:19-22 teaches us that we will one day be delivered from this cursed flesh.

6. The lifting of condemnation

Romans 5:18 KJV

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

III. God’s Plan for your life hangs in the balance

It depends on what you do with Jesus Christ.

Everyone, believer and non-believer alike, your future depends on whether you will obey Christ’s call today.

God has a call to the lost, to non-believers:

A. What do you have to do to be condemned? NOTHING, YOU ALREADY ARE

John 3:18 KJV

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

B. What do you do in ordered to be forgiven? – TRUST IN CHRIST!

Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

C. Believer - your job is to obey the Spirit of God

Obey His Word

Obey His leading into paths of righteousness

Depend on Christ to give you victory over a wicked imagination, a wayward walk, keeping God first in all things.

As we read we are to walk after the spirit, not the flesh.

Charles G. Finney, a young lawyer, was sitting in a village law office in the state of New York. Finney had just come into the old squire's office. It was very early in the day, and he was all alone when the Lord began to deal with him.

"Finney, what are you going to do when you finish your course?"

"Put out a shingle and practice law."

"Then what?"

"Get rich."

"Then what?"

"Retire."

"Then what?"

"Die."

"Then what?"

And the words came tremblingly, "The judgment."

He ran for the woods a half mile away. All day he prayed, and vowed that he would never leave until he had made his peace with God. He saw himself at the judgment bar of God. For four years he had studied law, and now the vanity of a selfish life, lived for the enjoyment of the things of this world, was made clear to him.

Finney came out of the woods that evening, after a long struggle, with the high purpose of living henceforth to the glory of God and of enjoying Him forever.

From that moment blessings untold filled his life, and God used him in a mighty way, not as a lawyer but as a preacher, to bring thousands to conversion over a useful period of fifty years.

—The Church Herald

Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times.